Very nice win for the Birds last night, with offense, defense, and pitching all being displayed. The O’s are in an easier part of their schedule now, and so far they’re making it count – winning 3 in a row and 5 of their last 8. They have a chance to guarantee themselves a series win against the Indians tonight in a favorable match-up, with Brian Matusz squaring off against Mitch Talbot.

Indians’ line-up:

Bat

Pos

Batting

Def

WAR

Cabrera, Asdrubal

S

SS

.294/.331/.381

-4.9

0.0

Grudzielanek, Mark

R

2B

.290/.343/.290

0.4

0.2

Choo, Shin-Soo

L

RF

.296/.405/.448

3.4

1.4

Kearns, Austin

R

LF

.341/.418/.518

2.8

1.2

Hafner, Travis

L

DH

.250/.379/.380

0.3

Peralta, Jhonny

R

3B

.229/.323/.367

-4.7

-0.1

LaPorta, Matt

R

1B

.210/.264/.247

1.4

-0.6

Marson, Lou

R

C

.192/.263/.247

0

-0.1

Crowe, Trevor

S

CF

.000/.000/.000

0

0.0

Crowe and Nick Markakis were actually born on the same day. Trevor is making his 2010 debut in this one.

You can see why Talbot’s strike-out rate is so low, since he doesn’t get a lot of whiffs on the slider and none on his fastball. The change looks like his best pitch, and the sink Talbot gets on his pitches helps explain his above average groundball rate. I think the strategy is pretty simple; make Talbot throw strikes, and then… lasershow. The Orioles will probably ground into at least one double play though.

O’s line-up:

Bat

Pos

Batting

Def

WAR

Patterson, Corey

L

LF

.462/.500/.769

3

0.3

Jones, Adam

R

CF

.245/.274/.371

-2.7

-0.3

Markakis, Nick

L

RF

.301/.396/.441

-1.3

0.8

Tejada, Miguel

R

3B

.288/.333/.440

0.7

0.7

Scott, Luke

L

DH

.232/.290/.475

0.2

Wigginton, Ty

R

2B

.304/.377/.635

-3.8

0.9

Wieters, Matt

S

C

.270/.338/.397

1

0.8

Atkins, Garrett

R

1B

.250/.280/.313

-0.9

-0.4

Izturis, Cesar

S

SS

.202/.262/.223

0.9

-0.3

Man, look at that sparkplug at the top of the line-up there!

Matusz:

K/9

BB/9

HR/9

GB rate

FIP

xFIP

WAR

7.4

3.1

0.5

26.6%

3.21

4.80

1.0

He got roughed up in his last start, even though it was the first time all year that he got more groundballs than flyballs. He’s the only O’s player at 1 WAR though.